Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Just as electrons flow through an electrical conductor, magnetic excitations can travel through certain materials. Such excitations, known in physics as "magnons" in analogy to the electron, could transport information much more easily than electrical conductors. An international research team has now made an important...
Robotic pill can orally deliver large doses of biologic drugs
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Biologic drugs – so named because they are typically isolated from a living source, rather than chemically synthesized – are used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including diabetes, inflammatory diseases, and certain types of cancer. However, due to their complex and easily degradable...
Mussels’ underwater glue inspires synthetic cement
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Those who have tried to pry a mussel from anything from wood to rock know how stubborn the underwater mollusks are — and their gluey secret has long captivated scientists. For years, researchers have attempted to replicate the extraordinary adhesive and its properties in the...
low-cost, non-toxic and more efficient
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Researchers supported by the EU-funded HEINSOL, PREBIST and DISCOVER projects may have found a much better alternative to current solar power technology with a new type of ultra-thin solar cell. Made from nanocrystals containing silver and bismuth atoms, the solar cell could help to reduce...
Robot photographer has eye for aesthetics (w/video)
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Master’s student Hadi AlZayer was hiking in a park, periodically asking fellow hikers to snap smartphone photos of him, when a pattern emerged. “Whenever I asked strangers to take photos for me, I’d end up with photos that were poorly composed,” he said. “It got...
Getting a handle on a robotics challenge (w/video)
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) When we pick something up, we’ll often jostle it around a bit, searching to get the best grip. A team of researchers have now developed a robotic hand that does something similar - a breakthrough that could advance the field of assistive robots. In the...
A biodegradable and recyclable piezoelectric sensor
Mar 03, 2022 (Nanowerk News) The flip side of the convenience that electronic devices brings us, electronic waste presents a complex and growing challenge on the path toward a circular economy – a more sustainable economic system that focuses on recycling materials and minimizing waste. E-Waste is now considered the...
Optical nano-biosensor enables rapid and quantitative serological testing of COVID-19
Mar 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Serological tests play an important role in the surveillance and management of epidemics or pandemics, as well as in acquired immunity studies. Currently, COVID-19 serology is performed by well-established immunoassay techniques, which provide high sensitivities, but require specialized laboratories with trained personnel and processing times...
Coronal loops may not be what they seem
Mar 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) Many coronal loops — ropey strands of plasma that scientists have long thought existed in the Sun’s atmosphere — may actually be optical illusions, according to a new paper that challenges prevailing assumptions of what we know, and don’t know, about the Sun. The research,...
Researchers propose chemoenzymatic cascade reaction for nanofiltration membrane cleaning
Mar 02, 2022 (Nanowerk News) A research group led by Prof. WAN Yinhua from the Institute of Process Engineering (IPE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has proposed a chemoenzymatic cascade reaction for green cleaning of polyamide nanofiltration membranes. The study was published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces ("Chemoenzymatic...